America has range anxiety. Lucid Motors CEO Peter Rawlinson may have an answer. 

Rawlinson, an industry veteran who previously engineered cars for Tesla, Lotus and Jaguar, built the Lucid Air all-electric sedan to quell range fears and transform how motorists drive. 

The sleek and futuristic Lucid Air ($82,400) can travel up to 516 miles without needing a charge, making it the longest-range EV currently on the market. The young company manufactures its vehicles in Arizona and production of its halo car, the $249,000 Lucid Air Sapphire (1,234 horsepower, 1,430 lb-ft of torque), begins this month. The company’s first SUV, the Lucid Gravity, will be unveiled in November. 

Rawlinson, who is also Lucid’s chief technology officer, said cheap electric vehicles with small, efficient batteries will get Americans to permanently trade in their gasoline-powered vehicles for electrics. 

“The feeling of the road, the feedback through the steering, the instantaneous torque — there is romance with an electric car,” he said. 

Production of the $249,000 Lucid Air Sapphire, which the company calls the “world’s first fully electric luxury super-sports sedan,” begins in September 2023.